Francis Cleary was an Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 lawyer and political figure. He was mayor of the town of Windsor, Ontario

Windsor, Ontario

Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...

 from 1883 to 1885.

He was born near Enniskillen

Enniskillen

Enniskillen is a town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is located almost exactly in the centre of the county between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of 13,599 in the 2001 Census...

, County Fermanagh

County Fermanagh

Fermanagh District Council is the only one of the 26 district councils in Northern Ireland that contains all of the county it is named after. The district council also contains a small section of County Tyrone in the Dromore and Kilskeery road areas....

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 in 1840, the son of Hugh Cleary, and came to Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Lower Canada

Lower Canada

The Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...

 with his parents the following year. The family later moved to Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 where he was educated. Cleary was admitted to the practice of law in 1867 and set up practice in Windsor. In 1871, he married Rose C. Anderson. He served four years as a member of the city council including his term as mayor. He ran unsuccessfully for the federal seat in Essex North in 1887, losing to James Colebrooke Patterson

James Colebrooke Patterson

James Colebrooke Patterson , PC was a Canadian politician. He served as a federal cabinet minister from 1892 to 1895 and as the sixth Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba from 1895 to 1900....

. In 1890, he was an unsuccessful candidate in the same riding for a seat in the provincial assembly. In 1901, he was appointed deputy clerk of the Crown, clerk of the County Court and Surrogate Registrar for Essex County

Essex County, Ontario

Essex County is a county and census division located in Southwestern Ontario and covers an area at the southernmost tip of Canada. The administrative seat is Essex...

. Cleary also served as president of the Essex County Historical Society.

External links

• Commemorative biographical record of the county of Essex, Ontario (1905)